Youth groups kick-off protests against GFMD, urge third world states to boycott meeting

June 5, 2010

October 20, 2008

Youth activists led by Anakbayan and League of Filipino Students (LFS)
picketed different embassies of third worlds nations today, urging
them to boycott the upcoming Global Forum on Migration and Development
(GFMD) to be held in Manila on October 27-30, 2008.

“The GFMD really means Gloria, George Bush and Globalization Forcing
Migrants to Death. The meeting will uphold more anti-migrant policies
and will exploit further the desperation of poor Filipinos and other
peoples of the third world in order to benefit the first world
nations,” said Ken Ramos, national chairperson of Anakbayan.

Ramos said that Arroyo does not have a right to brag about the migrant
policies in the Philippines as dozens of migrants monthly return home
in cofffins.

For his part, LFS national chairperson Vencer Crisostomo said the GFMD
a “cover-up” of the true state of migration and poverty in the third
world and a “conspiracy” of first world states to exploit further the
desperation of the poor people.

“This talk about migration and development is a cover-up of the fact
that people are being forced to migrate because of desperation.
Migration is brought about precisely by the lack of development in the
third world and the lack of jobs at home. This meeting should not be
allowed to cover-up the crime, committed by governments and states
adherent to globalization, of breaking up families and forcing massive
migration because of failure to address poverty and joblessness,” said
Crisostomo.

He said that instead of treating migration as “a symptom of the lack
of development in the third world, it is being skewed as to seem as
the solution to third world poverty.”

Crisostomo promised to “rock” the GFMD with militant protest actions
and rallies.

Anakbayan and LFS will also be part of a meeting of Asian youth
leaders to be held in the Philippines ahead of the GFMD. The general
conference of the Asian Students Association on October 25 to 27, is
expected to gather young leaders from New Zealand, Bangladesh, Nepal,
Pakistan, Japan, Palestine, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand,
Burma, and many others against the GFMD.#